History of Sociology
Sociology is the study of how people behave in groups, and how their behavior is shaped by groups. Tribal behaviors that formed the core of societies were a subject of discourse at least as far back as the ancient Greeks.
Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors. ~ Ibn Khaldun
Tunisian polymath Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was one of the founders of sociology and economics. His theories influenced 17th-century historians who analyzed the rise and decline of the Ottoman empire. Khaldun’s economic insights also impressed European scholars.
When population grows, available labor increases. In turn, luxury increases, corresponding with rising profit. The additional labor serves luxury and wealth, in contrast to the original labor, which served the necessity of life. ~ Ibn Khaldun
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French socialist Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825) set the stage for modern sociology with his naïve sentiment that societies could intelligently progress if steered by social scientists. Such optimism was a fruit from the Age of Enlightenment, as felicity with reasoning succored secularism in Europe. Such happy thoughts thematically continue to this day among many theoretical academics, who blithely believe that social solutions may be had via engineered increments.
